Fire and Ice
by TheRebelFlower
Summary: The planeteers go ice skating to take a break between ecoemergencies. With Gi's help, Wheeler and Linka take off on their own...


Fire and Ice

By Isabelle Saucier

isauciervideotron.ca

March 2003

Disclaimer: I do now own Captain Planet (he's not in this anyway) or the planeteers and wrote this short story just because for some weird reason, ever-lasting, ever-freezing winter (still at our doors up here) inspired me to write it.

I actually impressed myself by writing this short, considering I'm working on three other Captain Planet fanfics at the same time (and one actually includes Captain Planet himself) and they are taking forever to come out. Hope you'll have as much fun reading that I had writing.

"Remind me again why we are here," Gi asked the Russian planeteer, trying to return some feelings to her fingers by opening and closing her hands for a while.

"This will be fun, Gi. And much different than beaches and all this tropical stuff we are so used to," the blonde planeteer replied, pulling her left ice skate on.

"It's cold!" Gi complained, struggling with her skate laces.

"Come on, don't be such a party pooper. This is your element anyway, you should feel at ease on it," Wheeler commented from Linka's other side.

"It actually looks fun," Ma-Ti said enthusiastically, watching other people already on the frozen river.

"Of course it's fun!" Wheeler exclaimed, standing up.

He walked carefully to the edge of the frozen river, then stepped on the ice, holding onto a handrail put there for that reason. He skated away somewhat, to see if he had not lost it too much, then came back, apparently happy with the results. "Just like riding a bike!" he claimed, stopping right next to the handrail.

Linka was standing up from the bench and walked towards the handrail herself. The young man gallantly helped onto the ice and she thanked him with a beautiful, genuinely happy smile. These were rare coming from her, and he cherished every single one of them. He reluctantly let go of her hand as she did a few trial steps around him. "Come on, Mermaid," he encouraged the Asian planeteer as he helped her lace her skate. "You have to try it at least once."

"Easy for you to say, you already know how to ice skate. Ow! Don't pull so hard!"

"If it's not tight enough, you'll wobble."

"I'll wobble anyway. I've never been on these before!"

"Then you'll wobble less. Let's go!"

He pulled on her arms to make her follow him, but she was not balanced and went forward awkwardly. Grabbing the closest thing to her at the moment—Wheeler's coat—she avoided falling on her face by holding on tightly. "Come on, man, we're in public!" Wheeler joked, helping her to stand straight.

Kwame and Ma-Ti were already on the ice, standing more or less steadily on their feet. Linka were showing them how to move forward and how to slow down. "See what she's showing them? That's all there is to it. Not very complicated," Wheeler told Gi, who was now standing on her own as well.

After a while, with the help of "private lessons" from Wheeler and Linka, all three other planeteers could skate slowly around. Gi was now smiley and joyful again, but she still believed the handrails were the best way to stop herself. They skated for a while, talking about this and that, trying to follow the music coming from speakers set along the river.

At some point, they arrived at a resting area, which consisted in several benches and a small cabin where hot beverages were sold. "Time out, guys, I need a break!" Gi claimed, heading for a bench and using it to stop.

Ma-Ti and Kwame sat down as well, the young African leaning back on the bench to catch his breath. "This is fun! We should come back more often!" Ma-Ti commented.

"It is different," Kwame added.

Wheeler and Linka were still on the ice, the young man skating in small circles and figure-eights next to his companion. "Why don't you and Wheeler go for a few laps? We'll stay here and rest for a while," Gi told Linka.

The Russian planeteer blushed slightly, then looked at Wheeler, who had just stopped next to her. "Sure, why not?" he replied. "We'll meet you back here in a few minutes."

The two planeteers left together, Wheeler matching his strides with Linka's so they would not bump into each other. "That was almost subtle," Kwame commented, watching them leave.

"They need time together," Gi replied, a smile on her lips.

"_Let her play matchmaker if she likes it; she's right anyway,_" Ma-Ti's mental message said to Kwame.

The young African laughed aloud, then proposed they drank hot chocolates while they waited for their friends to return.

Wheeler and Linka skated in silence for a moment. The young man was elated; his beautiful Linka to himself! And smart, and funny when she decided to... he sighed inwardly. Sometimes, he felt he was hoping for nothing, yet at other times, she would display some interest in him and make him forget about any failed attempts at attracting her.

Linka was more attracted to him than he thought. However, she tried to understand and tame her feelings, unused to them herself and often taken aback by the strong reaction his blue gaze or his boyish grin would cause in her. She was used to logic, to planning; he could swipe all of that away in seconds, yet make her feel like everything would be all right. She had learned to trust him, and even if they still argued more often than she would have liked, she felt a strong complicity was taking place between the two of them. "_I wish I had the courage to hold him, to kiss him,_" she thought sadly. "_I am such a coward._"

She cast a side glance at her companion, and suddenly realized that he was talking to her. "You're gonna fall down in you keep your hands in your pockets like that," he warned her.

Caught off-guard by the comment, and somewhat irritated at being caught day-dreaming about him, she replied harshly: "I think I know how to skate, thank you," giving him a who-are-you-to-give-me-advice look.

"Gee, you don't have to bite my head off!" the young man protested, annoyed by the tone of voice she was using.

"If you would stop patronizing me, maybe I would not react like that!"

"I'm not patronizing you!"

"Yes you are! You are giving me advice as if I were a small child or a simpleton!"

Wheeler rolled his eyes. So much for spending "quality time" together… he waited a few moments, skating alongside his companion, then could not help but add: "I wish you would loosen up sometimes."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

She looked at him, uncertain of where that conversation was heading. His blue eyes were purposefully avoiding her, as he shrugged. "I just wanted you to take your hands out so I could hold you. You know, like dozens of other people are doing over there?" his arm swiped outwards to show the skaters in general, "Every time I try to do couple stuff, you push me away!"

She felt the frustration and hurt in his voice, and hesitated to send a retort of her own. "I do not," she finally said, feeling somewhat stupid not to have found anything better to say.

"Yeah, you do!"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do! Sometimes, I feel like I've got the plague or something!"

She sighed in frustration, then spun around to face him without even breaking her stride. "You do not understand," she began, skating backwards to keep up with him.

"Well, I'd like to understand! You have no idea of how aggravating it can be to feel that something is going on between us and suddenly—boot away Wheeler!"

He was becoming angry and his arms were moving about to accentuate his sayings. "And if it's not boot away, it's 'don't patronize me', or 'don't do this', or 'don't be an idiot'!"

"It is not easy! As I said…"

She was interrupted abruptly when she hit the edge of the river with her skate and fell backwards. Instinctively, she reached forward and grabbed onto Wheeler, but her momentum was too great and she only succeeded in pulling him alongside with her. The young American grunted in pain when his knee hit the ice, but managed not to land with his full weight on her. Linka sat in the snow bank, somewhat stunned, but felt she had to finish the discussion nevertheless: "See? I do not always push you away."

He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just make a joke?"

"Maybe," she replied, a hint of a smile on her lips.

He sobered up. "But seriously, if I really, really don't stand a chance, at least tell me frankly so I stop hoping that…"

"Do not be an idiot! I…" she stopped, realizing what she had just said to him.

Wheeler blinked, not moving from where he was, then his hand flicked into the snow and sent some in her face, both as an annoyance gesture and as a tease. Reacting almost immediately, Linka threw snow right back into his face. He shook his head to get rid of it, but said nothing, an indescribable look on his face.

Linka was about to tell him to move away so she could stand up when he leant towards her and kissed her. A long, hard, passionate kiss. She was so surprised by it that it took a while before she reacted, but did not push him away that time. This was quite unlike any kiss he had given her before, not that there had been many—she had not allowed it. His nose was cold against her cheek, but his mouth was all the contrary. She was both exhilarated and scared by the passion he put in his gesture, the way he was gently coaxing her into kissing him back… Ignoring her backside which the snow was slowly freezing, she put her arms around his neck to hold him close, welcoming his lips on hers and the warm, fuzzy feeling he brought to her whole body.

When he let go of her, they looked at each other, silent. Then, Linka took one of her mittens off and ran her fingers through his hair to remove a few remaining snowflakes. "That is why I am so scared," she began, resting her hand on his cheek and inhaling sharply when he moved to kiss her palm. "That is why I hesitate. I am not used to so much… passion; it is new to me. I did not… expect you to do this to me."

He smiled and stood up, helping her also in the process. His knee protested honorably, but he ignored it, thinking the bruise he was likely to get had been worth it. "You didn't expect me to do what to you?" he asked.

"_Make me fall in love with you,_" she thought, but did not say it aloud. "Kiss me like that, in the snow of all places. I could catch pneumonia because of this, you know," she said instead.

"You didn't seem to mind me kissing you, in the snow of all places," he commented, starting to head back towards the resting area.

"_How could I mind, you took my breath away!_" she thought. "No, I honestly did not mind. Aside, of course, from the fact that everybody were probably staring at us," she replied.

"Everybody probably didn't care," Wheeler replied, holding out his hand, hoping that she would take it.

She did, even if their mittens made the gesture awkward. They skated for a while, in companionable silence, listening to the music as they passed by the speakers. At some point, Linka pulled on her pant leg, making a small annoyed sound. "What's wrong, Babeouska?" the young American asked.

"My bum is all wet and frozen—" she complained, but stopped when she realized to whom she was saying this.

She quickly covered his mouth with her hand and exclaimed "Not a single word, Yankee!"

His eyes were twinkling with mischief and laughter, and something else she was unable to decipher… tenderness? Or perhaps desire, considering the kiss they had just shared, Linka thought, blushing, yet not totally appalled by the idea. Of course, he did not have to know about that. Yet. She felt him kiss her mitten, challenging her to say anything about it with his eyes. "At least take my mitten off," she commented impishly, blushing and smiling even more.

She read surprise and amusement in his eyes as he took her hand away from his mouth to put it on his chest, over his heart. "Does this mean I do stand a chance?" he asked.

"_Kanyeshna_," she whispered, hugging him. "Just give me time to get used to this… to get used to you. To all of this turmoil you have created in my quiet little old life…"

"I'll wait for as long as you need, princess," he assured her, resting his cheek on her head and returning her hug.

Since they were more to one side of the river, the other skaters could avoid them easily, a few casting an amused glance their way. "We should go back. They will wonder where we are," Linka finally said, grudgingly pulling away from her companion's warm embrace.

"We didn't skate much," he commented.

She shrugged. "We can come back."

"I think I'd like that, babe."

"To skate, not to sit me down in the snow bank," she felt she had to precise in a falsely stern tone of voice.

"You did that yourself, not that I minded at the time," he retorted, then laughed when she swatted at him.

"Of course, you did not mind, you were not sitting in it!"

"Hey, you can push me in anytime you want if that's what you need to kiss me!"

"_Nyet, gloopo!_" she protested, laughing despite herself. "I do not need the snow bank for that!"

"You'll have to prove that."

She blushed, but said nothing. "_I don't have that much courage,_" she thought.

Wheeler gave her a side-glance. "I told you I'd wait, I'll wait," he added seriously.

"_Spaseebah_."

"_Pajahloosta_, gorgeous."

With a happy squeal, she took his arm to draw him closer. The word had sounded a little strange with a Brooklyn accent, but she was happy he had made the effort.

They arrived at the resting area and Wheeler made a big show of making a sliding stop, sending snow on the three sitting planeteers. Linka thought she saw a hint of pain on his face as he leant on his knee, but was gone almost immediately and she dismissed the thought. "Had fun?" Gi asked her two friends.

"You could say that," Wheeler replied, and Linka turned a nice shade of pink.

"We went back for a while ourselves, but this is a very tiresome sport," Ma-Ti commented.

Wheeler smiled when he heard Linka cough to hide her laughter. "Do you want something to drink, Yankee?" she asked.

He nodded and she headed for the cabin, laughing softly. "What's with her?" Gi began "or should I ask?"

Wheeler shrugged, smiling, but said nothing. Gi understood right away that something had happened between her two friends and that once again she had done a perfect job of giving them a few moments alone. In her opinion, anyway.

"You wanna pilot, Gi?" Wheeler asked as they boarded the Geo Cruiser.

"Yeah, sure, no problem," she replied, taking place on the front, left-side seat.

Kwame sat next to her to serve as the co-pilot. Wheeler took place in the left back seat, and once more, Linka thought that he was favoring his right leg, but he sat down and said nothing.

The small airplane took off, and Linka waited until they had reached their cruising altitude to go change into dry clothes. When she came back from the small restroom, she saw Wheeler move painfully his leg as if his position was bothering him. "_Ya_ _znal eteh!_ I knew you were injured!" she exclaimed.

She lifted the armrest on Wheeler's seat and barked: "Pull your pant leg up!"

Surprised, both Kwame and Ma-Ti looked at her with their mouths open. Gi was laughing from her seat, and for once, Wheeler was actually blushing. He turned around in his seat so that his leg was out in the aisle and pulled on the fabric to reveal an angry-looking bruise. The pant leg had rubbed on it in places and it was scratched as well. "Ow," was all Wheeler managed to come up with as the young woman shook her head.

"We have to disinfect this now, and put ice on it."

"There was enough ice on it already, thank you."

She rolled her eyes, then went to get the first-aid kit and a cold pack. "This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" he half-asked, half-stated as she knelt in the aisle and put his foot gently on the seat across so his leg was straightened out.

Linka smiled at him. "I am afraid so," she replied before spraying disinfectant on his knee.

He jolted in pain, tears welling in his eyes. "Help! She's trying to kill me!" he cried out, but only receiving Gi's laughter as a reply.

"It is not that bad," Linka cooed, fanning the injury with her hand to remove the sting nevertheless.

"Yeah it is," he replied between clenched teeth, covering his eyes with his hands and tilting his head backwards towards the Cruiser's porthole.

He remained as he was, feeling Linka move against his leg as she put something on his knee, then the cold pack over it. The pain was slowly ebbing away, becoming duller and he was enjoying her ministrations, but he said nothing in fear that she would move away. He opened his eyes when he felt her hand on his stomach. She had moved closer to him, to his delight. "You did not have to do this," she whispered.

He shrugged, although his half-reclined position did not allow much movement. "I didn't want to hurt you," he explained, whispering as well. "I would have squished you otherwise and I would've had to dig you out of there."

She chuckled. "You are not that heavy."

"How would you know?"

She pulled her tongue at him, trying not to be too affected by the way he was looking at her, suddenly serious. "I think I will go back to my seat now," she whispered, standing up from her kneeling position.

Gi had not heard their conversation, but the fact that they had become silent was telling her that they were probably talking about whatever had happened between them earlier. "_Cool, they're finally getting closer!_" she thought.

She heard Linka tell Wheeler that she was going back to her seat and had an evil idea. She suddenly tilted the Cruiser on one side, making Linka fall forward with a surprised yelp. "Sorry guys, air pocket!" she exclaimed as an excuse.

"Liar," came Kwame's quiet reply, which made them both grin.

"This could become ridiculous, you know," Wheeler whispered to Linka, who was bracing herself against the plane's side, her face almost leveled with his, her other arm on his chest to hold herself up.

"She did this on purpose!"

"I think so too."

They smiled at each other. The undecipherable look was back in Wheeler's eyes, Linka noticed. She was about to say something when the plane lurched again, as if it was suddenly caught in turbulence. "Gi, stop acting like an idiot!" Linka complained, barely avoiding a collision with Wheeler's forehead.

"Too bad I don't have any snow to throw at you," he said so low that only she could hear.

"I told you. I do not need snow," she replied in the same manner, before surprising both him and herself by covering the little distance left between them and kissing him.

She was more timid than he had been earlier, but there was no doubt that she put strong emotions behind it. The challenge of remaining as silent as possible so the others would not hear only added to the thrill, the young man thought. "Planeteer alert!" Gaia's voice suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere, before her familiar form appeared in front of the Geo Cruiser.

If the Spirit of the Earth saw the mortified expression on Linka's face as she pushed away from Wheeler, she did not say anything. "Hoggish Greedly is attempting to exploit wood gatherers in Southern Asia. He hires the gatherers and their elephants, then overworks them, making them swim in and out of the island to get wood quickly, not caring if the workers get rest or not; he gets rid of them when they won't do anymore."

"That's horrible! What are the local authorities doing about it?" Linka exclaimed, forgetting about her embarrassment.

"Sadly, it's not considered 'illegal' because there are no quotas or many regulations—this will be a though assignment, planeteers."

"We're on our way, Gaia!" Gi assured, before changing her flight plan. "Kwame, can you download the Planet Vision's data in our computer?"

"Of course," he replied, ever the efficient co-pilot.

Gaia disappeared from the front of the Cruiser and Linka sat in the seat across from Wheeler's and put his leg on her lap to continue putting the ice pack on it. The young Russian could still feel the Spirit of the Earth's presence, however. "_Sorry about interrupting you during such a… personal moment,_" she mentally said to both Linka and Wheeler, sending them motherly love and comfort, yet still with the hint of a smile in her tone of voice. "_Although I must say it warms my heart to see you like this,_" she added.

"_I… I love him so much Gaia,_" Linka admitted simply in her mind, but looked up at Wheeler when she felt his leg jerk away from her lap.

His expression could have been extremely funny. His eyes were wide open and the color of his face could almost compete with that of his hair. He had heard her words; they were not directly aimed at him and they were muffled and somewhat echoic, but there was no mistake about what she had said. It seemed his heart missed a beat, then was ready to burst with joy. "_Linka…_" he managed to think out, "_Babe… I… you have no idea…_" his thoughts were so confused he could not put them out straight. "God, I'm so stupid!" he exclaimed aloud, angry at his inability to even return her feelings.

"That's a new one," Kwame commented in a low voice.

"Hey, whatever works," Gi replied, holding back a laugh.

Gaia, still there, tried to send calming waves to her fire planeteer. "_You are not stupid. I must admit she took me by surprise as well,_" she told him.

She slowly withdrew from his mind, feeling a little guilty, yet happy in a way that Linka had finally opened her heart. They were old enough to settle this by themselves and she thought she would have been intruding beyond her right if she stayed. The last thing she heard before returning completely to Hope Island was her wind planeteer saying quietly: "You are not stupid."

The cabin was silent for a while. "Yeah? Well, what do you call a guy who can't even admit to this really wonderful girl that he loves more than life itself?"

Ma-Ti gasped audibly and Gi unwillingly made the plane jerk, but no one complained. Linka took a deep breath herself, before saying as calmly as she could: "You just did."

"Come on! You really think that's how I wanted you to find out?" he asked almost angrily.

"And you think that is how I wanted you to find out?" she spat back, her boiling temper taking over despite herself.

"I didn't even get to choose the right words!" he argued.

"I did not even get to tell you!" she shot back, hitting her armrests with her fists.

Gi rolled her eyes. "I can't believe they are actually arguing about this, too," she sighed.

"I can," Kwame replied, smiling as he looked outside as if nothing was going on.

"Are we there yet?" Ma-Ti asked in a slightly whining voice, both to change the subject and to hide the fact that the situation was making him ill at ease.

Both Gi and Kwame turned around and gave him a solid "No!" which made them all laugh.

Wheeler and Linka remained silent, each on their side, trying to digest the new information they had brutally received. The young woman chanced a look in his direction and blushed when he looked back. He was serious for a few moments, then winked at her, his mouth turning up in a grin. She smiled back, feeling some of the tension between them drop, then looked out her porthole, trying to calm her poor heart down. "_More than life itself… Boshe moy!_" she thought, slightly light-headed.

She paid very little attention to the flight, to the time it took them to reach their destination. Wheeler was probably in the same state of mind. Poor Yankee. Gi announced their final approach and Linka saw from the corner of her eye that the American planeteer was pulling his pant leg back down and put the cold pack away. "You might still have to wait for me, my Yankee," she commented, thinking about what she had told him earlier on the frozen river.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere," he replied quietly, reaching over and giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

End


End file.
